X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse

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An updated look at the sequel to the best-selling X-men game of all time.

By Juan Castro

The thought of a compelling videogame based on the X-men was the stuff of dreams less than a year ago. Not to say they don't exist, but they're few and far between. Perhaps more than any other comic book property, or least as much, the plight of the X-men and their fellow mutants just haven't translated all that well into videgames. There may have been some in the 16 and 32-bit eras but recently gamers looking for mutant action have found themselves plumb out of luck. Thankfully, a brave developer stepped in and changed history.

Raven Software, known primarily for its first-person shooters for the PC, stepped up to the plate and delivered the first good X-Men game of recent times, X-Men Legends. The game took the varied histories of each mutant to form the backbone of a wholly satisfying action-RPG with all the trimmings. In short, we could take control of Wolverine, Cyclops and others without the experience totally sucking. Who would of thought? But there it was, an immersive and engaging game starring our favorite mutants.

Naturally, the game made a killing at the marketplace and currently stands as the best-selling X-Men game of all time. A sequel was not only inevitable, as with any financially successful title, but also welcome. So that brings us X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse. We last saw the game at the Electronic Entertainment Expo last May and walked away impressed. It looked as though Raven wanted to outdo itself by including a slew of cool additions such as enhanced co-op and increased mutant powers.

Recently though, a few blokes from Activision and Raven Software stopped by to show us the latest preview build of Legends II, the same one set to appear at Comic-Con this week. And once again, we walked away impressed. For whatever cosmic reason, they didn't actually let us play the game. We asked, begged and bribed to no avail. All we could do was watch the action unfold before us and doodle pictures of Wolverine on our notepads. Even still, we could tell Raven has its sights set on a killer sequel.

For those who don't know, or simply don't remember, Raven designed Legends as an action-RPG series with a focus on combat and co-op play. In Legends II, much of what made the first game fun to play remains intact. And since most of the elements in the first Legends worked so well, it's really no surprise that Legends II looks and plays very much like its predecessor. The focus is still co-op battles through a variety of well-known locales set in the X-Men universe. But that doesn't mean Legends II is a cloned version of its older brother with a new pair of jeans.

There's still plenty new here. To start, it's a given that games of this type rely heavily on their heroic (and villainous) lineup, so Legends II brings in new characters. Since the story centers on a shaky alliance between the X-men, lead by Professor X and the Brotherhood, lead by Magneto, you'll now get to play as characters from both sides, including Magneto and Bishop, Colossus and Nightcrawler. What's more, the main reason Raven chose to include a boss battle against Archangel was due to overwhelming demand from fans. Thankfully, they booted up this specific boss fight to demo how the "new and improved" encounters will work in Legends II.

Raven wants each boss fight to be thought heavy and multi-tiered so each one will require a different technique. In the case of the Archangel fight, the first thing you need to do is destroy a teleport unit that Archangel is using to shield himself. You'll need to find and destroy several parts of the machine to lower the shield. Afterward, Archangel starts flying around the room and blasts you with various attacks. Of course, since you busted the teleporter, you also have a stray energy beam roasting everything in its path. You need to enlist the aid of flying characters to avoid the beam and then wail on Archangel with your strongest characters.

Thankfully, Raven has made sure to include a host of new powers and attacks to help you take on enemies. Each character now boasts 8-12 active powers, which fans of the first game will recognize as a substantial improvement over the original. Better still is that all of these new abilities will be available in-game through a slightly tweaked interface. You'll still use the D-Pad to cycle through powers, only now in conjunction with a secondary menu. The result means you can switch between Magneto's Metal Minion (a summoned familiar) and Metallic Mayhem without needing to pause the action. Cool indeed.